Ja Rule’s feud with 50 Cent lasted for many years. Now, Melle Mel has reignited the beef by suggesting Ja Rule attempted to “copy” his nemesis’ sound.
“A lot of rappers could be better rappers if they stopped rapping like everybody else,” Mel said during a conversation with The Art Of Dialogue. “What is it that you need to say? You could be the n-gga that made a song about a pool party, but you fucked around and listened to Meek Mill and went and you fucked around and did some dumb shit. It’s just like when 50 Cent was doing this shit and then when Ja Rule and that was probably one of his last big records. ”
He continued: “If he woulda just made that record a pure New York record, it would have been a way bigger record. But he went the route of trying to sound hard because 50 Cent sound hard. And it was still a good record but I’m just saying, if he woulda just made it a pure New York record like how JAY-Z did with his New York record. See what I’m saying? If he woulda went along the same lines as that.”
Mel concluded: “So the point [I’m] saying is that consciousness does have its place in hip-hop, but everybody is too scared about not being hard. And that’s the destruction of the whole game.”
Earlier this month, 50 Cent responded to Mel’s claim Eminem is only popular and finds a place on several people’s lists of favourite rappers because he is white. Mel had said, “Nobody wants to rap like Eminem. Obviously, he’s a capable rapper. If you was talking about sales, he’s sold more than everybody. If you were talking about rhyme style, okay, he got a rhyme style. But he’s white. He’s white!”
In response, Curtis Jackson said: “There was more money selling dope than being in Hip Hop when [Melle] Mel was popping, the culture has grown so much. I am not sure if it would be what it is today without artist like Eminem.”
